Unexpected Emergencies
by Blueh
Summary: Luffy was abandon as a child, living alone on island. At the age of four, the Whitebeard pirates find him and decide to adopt him into the family. Now Luffy gets to run across the Grand line, New World and all of the Blue's as a Whitebeard pirate, and not just any Whitebeard pirate; he's one of Whitebeard's commanders! AceLu Brotherly.
1. A Tiger's surprise

**Unexpected Emergencies - A tiger's surprise **

**FINISHED. DONE. HA. **

* * *

"This island is creepy," Thatch said, looking around at the overgrown trees and vines that seemed to want to latch onto the small group. "I mean I feel like I'm being watched—I hate that feeling by the way. Especially if it's another pirate crew that thinks they can take us on. Do you know how _annoying _that is?"

"Thatch, shut up, yoi." Marco said, swatting at a plant in the pathway. "We get that you need to talk all the time, but do you seriously need to talk _all the time?" _

"Spoil sport," Thatch muttered, sticking out his bottom lip in a pout. He huffed and crossed his arms when he got no reaction. "Ace, you're with me on this right? Come on, buddy!"

"With you on what?" Ace didn't even glance over his shoulder as he continued to burn the islands plants. "The pirates or the creepiness?"

"Both!" Thatch cried, practically throwing his hands up in the air.

"I'll admit that the pirate crew challenging pops is annoying, but this island isn't creepy." Ace kicked a giant leaf out of his path. "Just really annoying."

"The bugs are going to eat me, I swear!" Thatch jumped on Marco's back. "Marco save me! I'm too young to die!"

"You're going to die even sooner if you don't get off of me, yoi." Marco said in a deadly calm voice, forcibly shoving the redhead off of his back. Ace started laughing, trying to muffle it with his hands. Marco stopped and turned around to glare at Ace. "And you, Quit encouraging him."

"But Marcooo," Both of them complained, shoulders sagging. Two big pairs of puppy dog eyes met the phoenix's unwavering gaze, but it didn't hinder. Ace sighed, shoving Thatch away from him as they continued on their journey.

Suddenly, Marco stopped and bent down to examine what looked like a leaf. Ace raised an eyebrow at Thatch, who just shrugged. Marco does weird things all the time, it's not like they cared. They did start to care, however, when Marco gestured to them to come look.

"What is it?" Ace asked the older man as he went to look at the plant. He didn't see anything strange enough for Marco to show them, until he noticed the dark red splotches behind the plant.

"Blood." Marco said simply, his expression remained impassive.

Ace pushed the leaves out of the way to get a better look, and it was indeed blood. And there was a lot of it. Just from Ace's angle, the fire-user could already tell that it wasn't an animal's. This blood was a human's, and it was fresh. A few hours old at most.

"A human's blood?" Thatch asked, glancing around them. "I thought this island was inhabited. There shouldn't be a human here, even pirates stay away from this island."

"This island _is _uninhabited." Marco corrected him. "It's pretty much impossible for any humans to live here, or stay here for a period of time because of the animals. This is the first time I've been here myself, but I've heard about how the animals are fifty to a hundred times bigger and more aggressive that what they normally are, yoi."

Ace raised an eyebrow. "Fifty to a hundred? That's pretty impressive. I'd like to explore this island more."

Thatch snorted, then hit Ace on the head. "Of course _you'd _want to explore the island with deadly animals. Seriously Ace, where is the common sense? Were you dropped on your head as a kid? Or is the whole 'D' thing going to your head?"

Ace growled and snapped at the fourth division commander. "Yes, I was, in fact! The shitty geezer wasn't that nice to me, you know! Not to mention the fact that _mountain bandits_ raised me_! _They're not particularly nice."

"Break it up, Ace. Thatch." Marco was between the bickering pair in an instant, pushing them away from each other, yet his facial expression never changed. The phoenix looked at Thatch directly in the eyes and said, "I don't think what Ace said was such a bad idea, yoi. It might give us the chance to find this person and help them." Ace nodded his head in agreement.

"Fine!" Thatch threw his hands up in the air, completely giving up. He jabbed his finger in Ace's chest accusingly," If I die, I'm blaming you, buddy."

Ace shrugged nonchalantly. "Sure, but you'll be dead."

"Stop." Marco's underlining threat reached both of the other commander's ears and they backed down. Ace rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, gave a small grin to the fuming Marco, and said, "Yeah, blood trail. Follow it. Right."

Marco's eyebrow twitched, but he didn't comment and started walking past the plant he was looking at, possibly following the small line of blood. Ace and Thatch glanced at each other, before bursting out laughing and racing to catch up with the phoenix.

* * *

The trail led on for a while, longer than Ace thought possible. He didn't think they were going to find anyone alive, if they found anyone at all. The sun was starting to set, and Ace really didn't want to have to try and find his way back to the Moby Dick in the dark, it happened last week and lets just say that Ace found the ship around midnight, soaked in water and covered in scrapes and dirt. No one on the ship really had the heart to try and find out what happened.

H was brought out of his musings by a roar. It wasn't a tiny, pitiful roar that would've sent normal men screaming, this was a roar of a predator that can't be defeated by any average man. Ace felt himself shiver, despite being exited. Thatch stopped and looked up ahead with a mix of horror and recognition. "I think I hear one of those large animals."

"The blood trail leads that way." Marco informed the other two. "We should go check it out, yoi."

Both Ace and Thatch nodded, following the older man as they made their way through all the large plants and thick roots. They were all tense, expecting an attack any moment; their haki was reaching as far as it could go. It wasn't a moment later when they heard a high-pitched scream.

Ace stopped dead in his tracks, looking around wildly. "That was a human!"

Marco gave him a glance that clearly said, 'well duh' before yelling, "What are you waiting for, yoi? Let's go!" And the three commanders found themselves racing through the plants, covering the in small scratches and other injuries.

When the found what they were supposable looking for, it wasn't what they expected. The first thing they noticed was the tiger, it was pretty hard to miss. Standing almost as tall as a middle aged tree, it's bright orange coat and glaring fangs made it the center of attention. From what Ace could tell it had cornered a small animal that was backed against a tree. Then he remembered the scream and his eyes widened. No, not an animal. A _human. _Probably a kid, given its size.

The tiger snarled, and the kid backed further against the tree. Ace didn't know when or how, but he found his legs running towards the giant tiger, ready to defend the kid. The fire user only vaguely heard Marco and Thatch's warnings as he continued to run.

"Oi!" Ace yelled at the tiger, trying to distract it. "Oi! You big fur ball! Over here!" He probably looked like an idiot, waving his hands in the air like a monkey, but he didn't really care at the moment.

Ace was finally able to get a better look at the kid that was huddled against the tree. He couldn't have been older than four, and all he wore was a simple red vest and shorts that were covered in dirt, scratches and blood. He had black hair and wide, bug like, innocent eyes that were terrified. In his hand, he was tightly clutching a silver pipe that was also covered in blood.

The tiger growled, something that hurt Ace's ears. Seriously, how could a _tiger _be this large? It was towering over Ace like he was a bug! But Ace wasn't afraid. He was prepared to fight this thing and maybe take some home for Thatch to cook. Ace smiled in anticipation, looks like they were having tiger for dinner tonight! Ace felt is body shift into a battle position, ready for the tiger the come at him.

And then it pounced.

Ace was surprised, to say the least, when the tiger didn't go for him, but for Thatch who was standing right behind him. Thatch made a surprised squeal and hastily dodged the incoming attack.

Ace didn't even take this time to wonder about what the tiger attacked _Thatch _because he was already running across the grass, trying desperately to reach the kid. Thatch could work on his own for a while, and besides, he's a cook, he knows how to deal with food.

When Ace reached the boy, his eyes were shut and his breathing was shallow and the wound on the side was still bleeding heavily, but he was still alive. Ace gave a sigh of relief; the kid could probably still be saved with emergency medical care.

The young adult ripped a piece of fabric from his shorts and gently pressed it to the bleeding wound. The child cried out, his eyes snapping open desperately searching for something. The minute he saw Ace, he whimpered and tried to move, but Ace's hand held him firmly in place.

"Hey, hey." Ace said quietly, trying not to scare the boy more than he already was. "It's okay. We're not here to hurt you. We want to help." The boy's eyes were dropping slowly from the amount of blood he lost, but he still managed a small noise. Whether it was positive or negative, Ace would probably never know.

Ace picked the boy up bridal style, holding him close. The boy let out a gasp of surprise, but he didn't struggle like he had before. Instead, the boy buried his head into Ace's shirtless chest, his eyes closing once more.

Ace frowned and recalled something about injured people needing to say awake, so he gently shook the boy. "Hey now. Don't drop on us just yet. Stay awake a little longer, okay?" He didn't get a response, which he thought wasn't a very good sign.

He glanced over his shoulder to see Thatch still fighting the tiger, but it was obvious who the winner was. It was more of a one-sided bead down on Thatch's part, the tiger could barley keep up. Marco was sitting in a nearby tree, watching everything, but not intervening. His lazy eyes were darting all around the clearing, looking for other possible enemies.

"Marco! Thatch!" Ace hollered, turning his full attention to his two comrades. "We need to go! Now!"

Marco simply nodded, jumped off the tree and started dragging Thatch by the collar of his shirt when he didn't start moving. Thatch didn't seem very happy about this, but he didn't struggle, only crossing his arms like a five year old and sticking out his tongue. "I was about to beat the shit out of it!" He complained. "Tiger meat is delicious if you cook it properly."

"Shut up, Thatch. We didn't come here for the tiger." Marco said, finally catching up to Ace. He looked at the child in his arms, assessing the damage. The child was unconscious now, but he was still making noises of pain every time his was jostled when Ace was running. "He's in pretty bad shape, yoi."

"Of course he's in bad shape, the kid was just attacked by that monster tiger!" Thatch waved his arms around in the air. "That tiger wasn't weak, either."

"Yeah," Ace commented dryly. "We noticed."

"I'm _so _going back for it later," Ace could see practically see the gears turning in Thatch's head, possible thinking of hundreds of ways to cook tiger. "That tiger is a dead animal walking. There is _no way _that thing is going to see tomorrow."

"Have fun with that." The fire user jumped over a giant root, and continued to sprint towards the boat, careful not to injure the boy in his arms any more than he already was.

It took around two minutes before Ace was back on the boat. He didn't bother to say hello, or wave or even answer any questions before he sprinted to the infirmary. He could leave Marco and Thatch to deal with the details.

Not even knocking, Ace burst through the infirmary door, startling some of the nurses. The doctor, Stacey, looked up at Ace's panting form before sighing and rolling her eyes. "You again? Come on, Ace. Don't you have anything better to do then spending time in the infirmary? I swear you visit me at least once a week."

Ace glared at her, clutching his throbbing chest but he managed to say. "Not the time. Kid. Help him." Before gently placing the small child on the nearest bed.

"Oh?" Stacey raced over to the child to get a better look. "What do we have here? A new patient?" She quickly snapped on a pair of blue gloves before examining the boy's body. A frown creased on her face before she looked up at Ace with worried eyes. "He's in pretty bad condition. How'd you find him?"

Ace had finally caught his breath. "There was this giant tiger attacking him. That's pretty much all I know other than he was pretty scared when I approached him." He didn't know how that was supposed to help her but whatever.

A brief flash of amusement crossed Stacey's eyes before it disappeared. "A giant tiger huh? I don't even want to know. You always find the craziest shit don't you, Portgas?"

"To be fair, it was Marco's fault."

"Uh-huh. Sure."

"Oi," Ace glared playfully at the doctor as she went back to looking the kid over. "I'm serious. It was Marco's fault! Though, Thatch instigated."

Stacey put two fingers to the boy's wrist, checking his pulse. The kid did nothing more than twitch, making Stacey sigh and run her fingers through the boy's hair. Even unconscious, the boy reacted to the touch, moving his head closer to Stacey's.

"He's better then he looks," She finally tore her eyes off the boy and looked Ace straight in the eyes. "But he needs to rest, eat and not move around too much or else it'll open up his wounds. But he's young, he'll heal fast."

Ace raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to patch up his wounds?"

"Not with you here, Flame brain." Stacey made a shooing motion with her hands. "Off you go. I'll tell you if anything happens."

Ace nodded and headed towards the door. His finger's brushed the wood's smooth surface and he looked back at Stacey, only to see her gently lift the child into her arms, walking towards another door. "I trust you to help him." He said simply, meeting her gaze as she looked back as well.

The woman nodded, and disappeared around the other door, leaving Ace to wonder what the hell had just happened to his day.

* * *

**I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY. **

**THERE. **

**DONE. **

**HOPE YOU LIKE IT. **

**/caps abuse. **


	2. A Lonely Child

**Whoop. Two chapters in two days! My hands are cramping. Ouch.**

**And to think that I still have 7 or 8 drawing commissions that I need to get done. -le sigh-**

**Ah, well. Hope you guys like this chapter! I think that you will even if nothing really important happens. Well, I guess the ending is sort of important.**

**Enjoy~**

* * *

"We didn't find anyone else on the island, Oyaji."

"Oh? So that brat was abandoned?"

"Possibly. What do you plan on doing?"

"Gwarhahahaha. I think you know, Marco."

"Are you sure? He is just a child after all. He might not even want this."

"Nonsense. What child doesn't want a father?"

"Ace."

"Grawhahahaha. Is that so? But I'm not changing my decision."

"Alright, Oyaji."

* * *

The child was terrified; it wasn't hard to tell. Ace had always been bad with kids, especially kid who looked torn between attacking or running away, neither of which Ace wanted to deal with.

As soon as the boy woke up, Ace knew there was going to be trouble. Now here he was, alone in the room trying to get the child to calm down. Stacey had just laughed and told him good luck and Marco and Thatch were on duties, plus Ace didn't trust anyone else with this kid—the rest of the crew wouldn't know what to do.

"Hey," Ace tried for his 'nicest' voice. "Calm down, it's okay. We aren't going to hurt you."

The child barley moved, only backing up further on the bed. Ace didn't know if the boy registered what he said, or even if he _understood _what he said.

The fire-user had to hold back a sigh. He knew that this was going to be difficult the moment the child woke up. Heck, he was having nightmares about what he wasn't going to tell this kid's parents. Maybe something along the lines of, "_Hey I almost watched your child get eaten by a giant tiger and we brought him to the world's most powerful man to help him and stuff. Anyways, here you go, have him back now."_

Then a frown creased his face. Did this child even _have _parents? It wouldn't be the first time that Ace had met a homeless child and he never really thought it would be the last but he id have to wonder where the child came from. Abandoned or not, who would just leave a four-year old boy to roam a dangerous island like that?

Then he thought about his own 'grandpa', Garp. What had that crazy old shit done to him when he was a kid? Ace couldn't even count the number of times he was hit on the head, thrown off a cliff or thrown into the ocean _when he couldn't swim. _Maybe this kid's mom or dad was like that as well. Hell, maybe they were even worse than that. If they were, Ace's heart went out to the boy (It's not like it already did). Having to deal with Grap was enough.

. . . Wait. He was assuming too much.

He needed to focus; he still had a terrified four year old to look after, right? After all, the moment he showed signs of waking, Stacey dragged him into the infirmary and demanded that he watch over the child and calm him down if needed.

Ace had wanted to complain, but that woman was about as stubborn as a mule. Once look from her was enough to send a zebra towards a lion and beg to be eaten (though most of Oyaji's doctors and female nurses were like this).

Now here he was, stuck with babysitting the very kid that he was losing sleep over. This time, the sigh did escape his mouth and he reached out to stroke the boy's hair. He made contact all right, but it wasn't the positive outcome that he had wishfully had thought would happen in his head.

The brat had _bit _him and goddamit it _hurt._

"Let me go!" Ace tried to pry the boy off him, but the boy had a grip of steel. The chocolate brown eyes glared at him, though the fear was still apparent. Ace could tell by the way this kid moved that everything that he's been doing was purely instinct and survival skill.

"Come on you brat," Ace growled. He could've just turned into fire, but there was a large chance that he'd burn the kid's mouth if he did that and the last thing he wanted was to deal with hurting one of Stacey's patents.

He shuddered just imagining what she's do to him.

Finally Ace gave up. He sat back in his chair, and let out a large sigh. This really wasn't his day was it? "You're aren't letting go, are you?" Ace accused the youth. He poured out all of the frustration and pent up anger into his words, though he really didn't care about the boy's reaction at the moment. He wanted his hand back! Besides, it was already starting to bleed and sting to a point that made it uncomfortable to move.

The boy shook his head in defiance, letting some of the fear fade from his eyes. Ace was glad that he got a response at the very least. For a few moments he wasn't sure if the boy was able to understand what he was trying to say to him. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

Ace always hated starts.

Ace put his elbow on his knee, leaning up closer to the boy before resting his head on his hand. "Can you _please _let go? I use this hand a lot." A once again tried to wiggle his hand free but the child's mouth just clamped down even harder. Ace glared at the boy and the boy just glared right back.

Ace was surprised to say the least—very few people could stand up to his glare but here he was facing down a four-year-old boy and _losing. _Losing was not a vocab word in Ace's book (not that he knew many vocab words to begin with) especially to little kids with big attitudes.

"Why couldn't you have bitten Marco's hand?" Ace continued to complain, unaware of the loud footsteps outside of the room. The stinging pain had dulled to an annoying throb now and for some reason every time Ace felt his heart beat through the wound, his left ear twitched. "I bet his would taste better. Like chicken. You know that he's a firebird, right? A phoenix. It's basically a turkey with blue fire. He also has this weird hair-do that looks like a pineapple. You like pineapples, right? Okay. We have a plan. Go bite Marco."

The child didn't even twitch, just sitting in the same spot, not moving. Ace was vaguely aware that he was ranting about things that really didn't make sense and in the back of his mind he wondered if the boy had rabies. Maybe Ace was catching the madness?

"Let go alreadyyyyyy." The fire-user's voice was starting to come out as an annoyed wine. It's not like he cared; no one else was in the room other than the four-year-old who apparently wants to eat him.

"Can't even take care of a kid, yoi?"

"Marco!" Ace cried out happily, turning around as fast as he could. Maybe his friend could help him pry this brat off of him, right? Or even better; the brat will lose interest in him and go try and eat Marco instead! "Help me." But for now he'd settle with any help he could get.

Marco gave him and unimpressed yet disapproving look that only Marco could do. If anyone else tried to do it, they'd end up looking like a pig with smooched faces. The Phoenix walked up to the boy and sat on the bed nest to him. The child gave him a weary glance, but didn't let go of Ace's hand. Marco looked like he was surprising a smirk and ruffled the boy's hair like Ace had tried to do before.

The only difference was Marco didn't get bit, much to Ace's disappointment.

"Stubborn little thing, aren't you?" Marco allowed a rare, soft smile to appear on his lips. A calming gesture. Ace frowned a little. Why was Marco so good at stuff like this? Whenever Ace tried to be nice to kids he either got rocks thrown at his head or he gets bitten.

"Come on now," Marco's hands went under the child to scoop him up, bringing Ace's hand with him. "Let Ace go. He probably taste's bad, doesn't he, yoi?"

"Oi, oi. Marco. Rude." Ace shot his friend a warning look that clearly said 'don't test me right now I'm being bitten by a four-year-old and I'm not happy'.

But it did have the affect that Ace had hope for; the boy gave a shaky nod and let go of Ace's hand. Instantly Ace was rubbing his new wound, glaring at pretty much everything that came into his sight. He stood up from his chair and went to the medicine cabinet that Stacey had for people who weren't that injured, but still needed first aid. He took out the alcohol and started to disinfect his hand, then wrapped a bandage around it. He glanced back at the kid who was quietly sitting in Marco's lap looking uncomfortable, but not as scared as he was before. "That wasn't very nice, you know."

The boy gave him an innocent look like he didn't know what Ace was taking about and buried his small, fluff head into Marco's bear chest. Ace snorted and shut the cabinet. "Smartass."

Marco rolled his eyes, the lazy expression coming back to his face. "Ace quit harassing the kid. I bet he's had enough shit for a while."

"But he bit me," Ace's lips formed into a pout. Why was it his fault? Why was he getting scolded by the Phoenix? The kid started it! It's not like he _wanted _to be bit by a four-year-old that might or might not have rabies.

"Ace."

Yet he already knew he was going to get blamed anyway.

* * *

Whitebeard hummed as he looked at the three figures in front of him. Two of them were his sons that always made him so proud and the other was the child that Whitebeard was not so secretly wishing for him to join his family.

The child was currently in Marco's arms looking up at the giant man with awe and a little bit of fear. It didn't really surprise Whitebeard though, after all who wouldn't be scared meeting the world's most powerful man for the fist time?

Ace wasn't.

The giant's eyes wandered to his black-haired son, analyzing him. Whitebeard knew that something was wrong the moment the fire-user had walked in. He could practically _feel _the boy's emotions radiate in waves. Annoyance, anger, and overall he was just in a very pissy mood.

Whitebeard noted the newly wrapped bandage on his son's hand and gave him a questioning look. Ace's eyes flicked towards the boy in Marco's arms then back again giving Whitebeard all the information that he needed.

He couldn't help the smirk that formed on his face. The boy was already causing trouble, huh? And to think that they didn't even know his name.

"Brat," Whitebeard addressed the kid like he did everyone else. Marco set the boy on the ground giving him a gentle push forward. "What's your name?"

The kid didn't answer for several minutes and Whitebeard worried for a second that the rumors were true; the boy didn't even know _how _to speak.

"Luffy," The boy muttered after a while and Whitebeard let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding in.

Whitebeard gave the child a small smile, gesturing for him to come closer. Luffy hesitated for only a moment before he padded over to Whitebeard's leg and looked up at the man towering over him.

Using only one arm, Whitebeard scooped up the tiny figure and place him on his leg. The boy let out a yelp of surprise, but he was soon quiet again.

"Luffy?" Luffy nodded in reply. "Well then, Luffy; where are your parents?"

Luffy looked confused. Parents? He shook his head, not knowing what the man was asking. He didn't have any parents or anyone for that matter. He had been alone from before he could remember.

Whitebeard frowned. He had though about this idea and he knew that this was the most logical situation but it didn't make him happy. Who would want to abandon a child at such a young age? It didn't seem right. "Do you have any family looking after you?"

"No," The kid looked miserable like he was remembering a painful memory. "Alone."

Whitebeard noticed that Ace and Marco had newly formed frowns on their faces as well. Ace didn't even seem to be that angry at the world anymore. "Is that so? So no one is looking after you?"

"No," Came the same reply. "Alone."

Whitebeard hummed, thinking his decision over. If a child were to join them . . . How would the other commanders and crewmates react? They would have to train him and protect him.

But then again, that was what family was for.

The giant smiled, ruffling Luffy's raven locks. "How would you like to join us? _We _could be you're family."

Marco look impassive but Ace's eyes widened to an impossible length. "But Oyaji—!"

"Hush, brat." Whitebeard commanded, not in the mood for interruptions. "It's the boy's decision."

"Family?" The four-year-old almost sounded wishful. "I don't have a family."

"You could," Whitebeard tried t get his point across. There was no way they were just going to leave the boy on this island to fend for himself like he had to before. It had almost gotten him killed because he was alone—If Marco, Ace and Thatch hadn't found him in time then there was a big chance that even Stacey couldn't have saved him. "We could be your family." He repeated.

"I want a family," Luffy said in a childish voice, looking up with big brown eyes. Whitebeard couldn't help but smile. Looking into eyes so young—so innocent sent a warm feeling throughout his whole body. "You be my family?"

The smile would never leave Whitebeard's face for a long time, he was sure of it. "Of course, Luffy. We'll be your family. Always."

* * *

**There. Done. It took two hours to write when I wasn't procrastinating. **

**Also, I want to try something ~ If I get 30 reviews then I'll update faster for the next chapter. So instead of waiting like another two or three weeks, I'll have it out in a couple of days. Though, I doubt many people will read this AN anyways sooooo . . . . **

**Ah~ The things writers do for reviews. **

**Welp, I'm going to bed now 3 Hope to see some nice reviews when I wake up! -wink wink-**


	3. Life on the Moby Dick

"Ne, Ai." The small child tugged on Ace's pant leg hoping to get the larger teenager's attention. Ace looked down and smiled at the boy, all of his anger from the previous day gone.

After Whitebeard had talked to Luffy they had brought him back to the infirmary because Stacey was threatening them with scalpels if they didn't. So, being the wise and mature ones who valued their lives, they brought the boy back. _Then _they found out that Luffy seemed to have trouble saying Ace's name (For whatever reason that is) and called him 'Ai' instead. Ace was a bit hurt but he didn't let it on. After all, Luffy could pronounce Whitebeard's name just fine, but his simple name? No. The kid could only pronounce a syllable of it.

"What is it, Luffy?" He asked, followed up by a pat on the head. Luckily he _didn't _get bit this time, but he was still cautious. His hand still hurt pretty badly from their last encounter.

"What 'funny'?" Luffy asked with a tilt of his head, looking at Ace with those big doe eyes that even Marco fell for. Ace had always though that little girls were adorable; not little boys. The only little boys that he'd met were brats that had done some pretty nasty things to him (Yes, this includes biting).

"What do you mean?" Ace was honestly confused. Did he mean to ask what was funny? Or did he not know what the word meant? It wasn't the first time, just yesterday the boy had asked what a 'dick' was right after he heard someone scream it out in the hallway. Ace and Marco didn't answer, of course and luckily Luffy let it go and didn't ask again.

"Funny," The boy frowned in concentration. "What 'funny'?"

"Do you mean what does it mean?" Ace asked, kneeling down to the boys level. Shyly, the boy nodded in confirmation, his black hair bouncing up and down on his head.

Luffy could understand things great, but when it came to actually speaking he had more than enough trouble. Luffy was a bright kid, don't get him wrong, but he needed a word to be put into context before he understood what it meant or have something shown to him.

Ace suppressed a smile and sat down, pulling the boy into his lap. He was glad that Luffy was calm now. Even if it was only a day later you could tell the difference. "Funny is when someone laughs." He tried his best to get a four-year-old understand what he was trying to say.

The boy looked thoughtful for a moment, then smiled brightly. "Like when Pineapple laughed when Ai fell!" He squeaked out brightly, burying his small head into Ace's chest.

Ace didn't know weather to frown or laugh. Yes, he did fall on his face when he was exiting the infirmary and yes, Marco had laughed at him but it wasn't his fault! There was a piece of wood sticking out by the door that Marco couldn't see and claimed that Ace was just stupid and clumsy and tripped on his own feet.

. . . Marco had to dodge a fireball coming at him after that.

On the other hand, he could've laughed. From the moment that Ace had called Marco a pineapple, Luffy had claimed that he liked 'Pineapple' better and started calling the older man by that name instead. This time _Ace _had found that funny, though it would've been better if Luffy had called him a fire-turkey instead. Ace sighed in disappointment, if only Luffy could pronounce the word 'turkey'.

Gently he stoked the boy's head. "Yeah, you could say that."

"Say what, yoi?"

Ace scowled at Marco, annoyed by the older's antics. "Do you have to keep popping out of nowhere? I mean seriously, ever time I say something you pop in and are all like, 'what'd you do now Ace, YOI?' It's annoying."

Marco's impassive face didn't even blink when he said, "Sorry." Not sounding very sorry at all. In fact, if anything he sounded amused. "You just say strange things from time to time, yoi."

Ace made a finger pistol and pretended to shoot the older man's head from where he was on the floor. "You have no tact Marco. Jeeze."

"Hi Pineapple." Luffy greeted, looking up from Ace's bare chest to give the older man an impossible large smile that only seemed to fit the kid. Luffy then proceeded to jump up from Ace's lap and waddle over to the Phoenix as if he were about to give him a hug or maybe cling to his pant leg. Suddenly the child stopped; his forehead creasing up as he thought about something that not even Ace could contemplate.

Without turning around, Luffy called out. "Ne, Ai?"

"Hmm?"

"Is this funny?"

"Is what fun—" Ace started to ask, but before he could even finish his sentence the boy jumped at Marco and head-butted him in the crotch. Marco fell to the ground rolling in pain while Luffy just stood there, grinning like he'd just won a marathon.

Ace started at the boy, speechless before the moment finally caught up to him and he burst out laughing. He grabbed his stomach as tears came out of his eyes and _damn _it felt good to laugh like this again. The last time he'd laughed this hard was when Ace and Thatch had dyed Marco's hair pink right before they arrived on an island. Let's just say that Marco wasn't happy about all the strange looks he was getting.

Ace pushed himself off the floor and scooped up the small child, poking him on the nose. Luffy giggled and grabbed Ace's hand with his little fingers. "Yes, Luffy. That is _very _funny." The boy let out another happy giggle, hugging Ace.

Suddenly Ace was _extremely _glad that Oyaji had adopted this little brat into his family. Sure, he might still be young, but then again weren't they all at one point? Luffy was their little brother now, and no one could change that.

"Not funny, yoi." Marco gasped out. Ace looked at him with a small amount of pity before he stepped over the blonde and walked towards the door with confident stride.

"Consider it payback from yesterday, _Pineapple."_

* * *

The news spread like a wildfire. A new brother? A _kid? _The residents of the _Moby Dick _didn't know what to make of the situation. Yesterday Marco had come up from the infirmary (Where no one else was allowed unless severely injured) waddling in a weird fashion and muttering how he was going to strangle both Ace and the kid's neck.

With Marco PMSing the only other person they could ask was Ace, except they could never find Ace. They even checked his cabin late at night and he wasn't there. The fire-user was probably in the infirmary most of the time.

This only made the pirates suspicious.

That was, until one morning when their problem ran screaming up the steps.

"GET BACK HERE!" That was Ace. Everyone's heads swiveled in the direction where a loud crash was heard, followed by a squeal. Not know what to make of the situation, the pirates only watched as a fun-sized blur of black and red raced past them and hid behind Oyaji's head, oblivious to everything around him.

Another loud crash was heard and Ace raced up the steps like the blur had. Though, unlike the mystery creature, Ace did notice all the stares him was getting but simply ignored them for he got these stare often.

He stopped right in the middle of the deck so the could all get a good look at while Ace was so angry. Several commanders had to hold in pearls of laughter that would likely be released any time soon.

It seemed as if their new guest decided to play connect-the-freckles.

"Luffy, get your ass out here _now." _Ace growled, glaring at Whitebeard's legs. Two curious, brown eyes popped out from the side, looking at Ace with fear. "This is _permanent _marker! Do you even know what permanent means? It doesn't come off!"

"But Ai looks pretty," Luffy looked away shyly, giving everyone his 'I'm innocent' look like he usually does when he knows he's in trouble but doesn't want to get caught even if everyone knows it's already him.

The surrounding pirates couldn't help it; they finally burst out into full-blown laughter, some even falling to the deck clutching their sides. Fire raced along Ace's shoulders as he glared daggers at everyone that sat on deck. Sadly, it didn't look as threatening when he has what looked like a flower on his left cheek.

"Only know each other for not even a week and you've already caused a lot of trouble, haven't you boy?" Whitebeard said with a smile as he scooped up the fuzz ball that stubbornly refused to let go of the giant's leg in fear that he was going to die a horrible, painful death by the hands of his new friend.

"But Oyaji," Whitebeard smiled at the named the boy used and stroked his hair. It was hard not to, after all his eyes looked just like a puppy's. "Ai sleep on floor and he cold!" The child's lips formed into a pout. "So marker wake him up."

"You drew on his face to wake him up?" Whitebeard raised an amused eyebrow when the boy vigorously nodded his head. "You know that he doesn't get cold, right? Ace is made of fire."

The boy tilted his head to the side. "Ai made of fire?"

Whitebeard laughed. "He ate a Devil Fruit. You know what a devil fruit is, don't you brat?"

The child shook his head, looking up at Whitebeard with eyes that held such curiosity that it made it hard not to just straight out tell the child what they were. But no, sadly Luffy wouldn't understand him if he gave the standard definition of a Devil Fruit. "They're these fruits that taste really bad," Whitebeard stuck out his tongue to prove his point making Luffy giggle. "And they give you powers."

"Power?" The boy leaned eagerly towards Whitebeards, wanting to hear more. "What powers?" The boy was leaning so far forward that he fell flat on his face. Rubbing his nose, Luffy quickly composed himself, his cheerful expression never changing.

"Like fire, or sometimes its animals like—"

"Like a Tiger Lord?" Whitebeard had no clue what a 'Tiger Lord' was, so being the insightful man he was he just assumed it was a rather large tiger that the boy grew up around.

"Like a Tiger Lord," Whitebeard agreed. He was vaguely aware that Ace had fallen asleep yet again by the mast and this time, losing intest now that his prey was safe from harm andThatch was drawing on his face with something that looked like a _pink _sharpie. What was it with his sons and sharpies? Whitebeard pitied both men, especially when Ace woke up. Whitebeard might've been able to save Luffy but there wasn't any way for him to save his older son. He'd just end up getting caught in the crossfire.

The boy seemed to ponder this idea for a few minutes before he asked Whitebeard in a hesitant voice, "Like rubber, too?"

"Rubber?" Why rubber of all things? "Yes, I guess that there is a possibility of a rubber devil fruit."

"Ne," The boy seemed to be taking this topic very seriously. A little too seriously for the giant's liking. He knew something was up; something was bothering this child. "Are devil fruit bad?"

"Why would you say that?" Whitebeard made sure that Luffy was looking directly into his eyes. He needed to know or else this piece of information might get him killed later. "Just because a person has a devil fruit doesn't mean that they're bad, brat. It just means that they're special."

_"Die you little shit head! A brat like you shouldn't even have a devil fruit power to begin with!"_

Luffy could feel tears burning his eyes, the harsh words echoed in his had they come from? Luffy couldn't remember ever meeting anyone other than the Whitebeard Pirates. Was it just a dream?

Whitebeard noticed the incoming tears and had to wonder how this conversation took such a dark turn. When had it started? Why? It took a lot to confuse the world's strongest man but he was completely and utterly lost now.

"He said they bad," Luffy said in a childish voice, recalling the words. "Bad. Go die."

Now Whitebeard was even more confused. Why would someone tell a child that? Then another though struck him, how did Luffy have human contact? Wasn't he abandoned? Thoughts swirled around in his head as he stroked his mustache. "Why would someone say that?"

"Um," The boy seemed to be thinking of the right words as he fidgeted uncomfortably on Whitebeard's large lap. "Rubber." The boy finally decided on saying.

"Rubber?"

Slowly, the boy held out a finger and grabbed it, causing it to stretch to an impossible length. Whitebeard sat back in his chair, not as surprised as he thought he'd be. So the brat ate a devil fruit, huh? That would explain the interest of the topic and even the reason someone might say stupid things to a four-year-old. Humans really don't know when to shut their mouths when it came to mysteries.

Allowing the grin that he'd wore before to appear again, Whitebeard pulled the boy in for a hug. Luffy stiffened in his arms as if he ever surprised at the touch. Maybe he was. Whitebeard didn't know the boy's past and didn't particularly care at the moment. He'd tell them when he was ready if he remembered anything at all.

"Did you think we'd treat you differently because of a silly thing like that?" Whitebeard asked softly. He felt the child nod into his chest and a sigh escaped his lips. The giant man knew about this, he'd even had sons who were insecure about their devil fruit power in fear of separation from others. Once, a long, long time ago Whitebeard himself had had that same fear.

"Luffy," Whitebeard pulled away and made sure the boy's eyes were locked with his. "You're out family, we're not going to treat you differently just because you're special."

Luffy smiled, a real one this time, and wiped the upcoming tears from his eyes. "Thanks Oyaji."

Whitebeard laughed, ruffling the boy's hair once more. "You're welcome brat."

* * *

It took almost a year for the Moby Dick to settle back to a normal schedule. From Luffy's arrival to the fact that Thatch had seemed to adopt the kid as his apprentice, things were rarely peaceful anymore. But for some reason today was oddly quiet.

There was not running, no screaming, no giggling and overall nothing but the sound of the waves as the slammed against the hull of the ship. Of course the crewmembers were suspicious, it was rarely this quiet but they can't say that they didn't enjoy it.

The now five years old, Luffy could prove to be quite a handful when he wanted to be, like just yesterday the boy and Thatch had been playing a simple game of tag until Thatch had cornered the kid. Luffy, being the idiot he was, saw not way to escape the 'evil man's' grasp other than jumping off the ship. Thatch had to jump in afterwards and both came up smiling like they'd just had the best time ever.

So they crew can't say the were surprised when Luffy came running up on the deck, his cheeks inflated as if something were shoved in his mouth and immediately hid behind Namur's legs.

Namur simply raised an eyebrow, looking at the midget at his feet with interest. What was it this time? Maybe he raided the kitchen like he always does. But then again, he usually won't go hide behind someone's legs unless it was a bigger prank than that. Most of the time it was Ace storming up on deck, his face pained, covered in whip cream or something else (Pretty much only on his face, the kid had a fascination with his freckles).

But today Luffy had apparently decided to mix it up a little.

"WHERE IS THE BRAT?" Thatch's voice bellowed from below deck. The boy in question squeaked, terrified of Thatch's wrath, and pressed himself harder into Namur's legs burying his face into his jeans.

Thatch jumped onto the deck, pissed and . . . pink. Everywhere, coving the commander head to toe was soothing akin to pink glitter. His hair wasn't neat and his strange hairstyle wasn't like it normal was. Instead it was loose, free and yes, pink, waving around in the older man's face like it was trying to wash it.

Namur raised an eyebrow, looking directly down at the boy who stood perfectly still as if Namur's leg was the perfect camo after he'd pulled a big stunt. "Luffy, what did you do?"

Swallowing whatever was in his cheeks (Namur didn't really want to know) the kid looked at him, his hair flopping in his face. "I made Thatch a pretty pink."

"Why?" Namur had a smile on his face as he was trying to hold back a laugh that would no doubt get the cook mad at him as well. Luffy had this strange habit of either drawing on the commander's faces (Izo was _pissed _when he found out), painting them different colors, or messing with their personal supplies. Afterwards he would always claim that he was just trying to make them 'pretty'.

"Because he sparkles," The child looked down at his hands, but Namur couldn't help but think the boy was proud of what he did.

"Oi! Thatch!" Haruta called out to his fellow commander as Thatch stormed around deck demanding to know where Luffy was so he could wring his rubberneck. Namur watched with mild curiosity as the cook's sharp gaze landed on the swordswoman. "Did your own _apprentice _out smart you? Really? A five year old was able to do this to you?" Haruta barked a laugh and slapped his knee, "Oh god this is too good!"

"Shut up!" Thatch's glare sharpened even more. "He made something pink explode in my bathroom and _then _he took my hair gel hostage!" By the end of the sentence Thatch was starting to wine, flipping his hair lifelessly. "I _need _my hair gel! Oh! And after he grabbed my hair gel the little shit then had the nerve to raid the kitchen and steal a whole chicken!"

Namur looked at the child setting at his legs. Sure enough the brat had the giant bottle of Thatch's hair gel locked firmly in his hands. How had Namur not noticed that? The commander leaned down and picked the boy up looking at him with a smirk on his face, showing off his shark teeth. "You should probably go give Thatch back his hair gel before he kills everyone on deck."

Luffy pouted, his bottom lip sticking out in an adorable way. "But then Thatch won't be pretty and he'll take away my meat."

"You guys are too loud," Ace, who probably fell asleep next to the mast sometime before Thatch arrived, muttered, turning on his side. "Luffy don't draw on my face~"

"YOU!" Apparently Thatch had found Luffy. "Give me back my hair gel!"

"No!" Luffy squeaked and tried to get out of Namur's iron grip. Seeing that Namur wasn't going to let go of him, Luffy looked up at the fish man and gave him his best puppy-dog eyes. "I don't wanna die."

Storming up to the pair, Thatch snatched the bottle from Luffy's tiny hands and glared at the five-year-old boy who was still in Numar's arms. "Try that again and it'll be the last thing you do."

"Thatch looks pretty?" The child offered, hoping to calm down the raging brunette.

Frowning, Thatch took the child out of Namur's arms and carried him back below deck, scolding the poor child how it wasn't nice to prank his mentor and to _never _steal his hair gel again.

And everyone else never saw this happen, fearing for his or her own lives.

* * *

**Yay. Okay, so I originally planned to wrap up Luffy's childhood all in one chapter (it was going to be a long chapter okay okay) but then I was like, "Why make Luffy grow up so soon? He's too cute right now! We need to enjoy it while it lasts." So instead it's going to take around 3-4 more chapters of Luffy's childhood, including how he'll get his hat (Yes, luffy without his hat is a big nono), any other reactions with the crew members. **

**If you guys have anything you want me to write for this story, please tell me! I have the basic plot line all written out and stuff, but I still need some ideas for Luffy interacting with the crew. **

**And yes, Luffy does have an obsession with making the commanders 'pretty' and sparkley just like ever other child his age would. **


	4. Fearless Five

**Hey guys! Happy early Halloween! Here's my little gift to you all :) **

**Something really importaint: Luffy doesn't know his last name or his middle name, okay? So the whole 'Monkey D.' part. He doesn't know how he was abandoned on the island and he doesn't know that he has any other family.**

* * *

"Hey , mister," The pirate glowered down at the child that appeared out of nowhere and seemed to be clinging to his feet. "You're really ugly!" The child let out a happy giggle. "And you look stupid, too."

A growl close to that of a wild animal's ripped at the older pirate's throat. What the hell was with this brat? "Do you want to die, kid?" He replied in a steely calm voice like the calm before a storm.

The child either didn't seem to be affected or just didn't care as he jumped around the feet of the pirate and his crew, still giggling. He stopped right in front of the captain with that stupid happy smile still on his face. "You couldn't kill me!" He laughed and poked the captain's stomach before the captain could do anything. "You're too fat!"

The pirate touched the hilt of his beloved sword, making sure it was still there. At the vest least, there would be a new blood stain on his precious companion if this shit didn't scram right now. The captain might be a pirate, but he didn't _aimlessly _kill villages. Only one person had to piss him off before that would happen.

"You think you could fight me, shit?" He snarled; gripping the hilt of the sword even harder than before and even unsheathing it so the dark blade glistened in the sunlight. "I'll kill you first."

A strong gust of wind blew up the loose dust around their feet and the captain couldn't help but think this was a very cliché set up. Well, other than the fact that he was facing off an egotistical brat instead of a powerful admiral.

"Mister, you really are as stupid as you look." The brat informed him happily. It was almost as if the kid was purposely making him mad. He hated how happy and carefree he was in the hands of death. Maybe he thought it was a joke and that the captain was his long lost father or something?

"Scram brat."

"No!" The brat puffed out his cheeks and crossed his arms over his small chest. The captain was really starting to thing that he was purposely trying to get killed. It wouldn't be the first time that he'd met a suicidal kid and it probably won't be the last.

The pirate unsheathed his sword while the child watched with that stupid smile on his face. "Let me have the honor of learning your name before you become a hamburger for the homeless, hmm?"

"I'm Luffy!" The child—no, Luffy—said as he stared at the older man. "Ne, is that a real sword? That's so cool! Its like Vista and Haruta's!"

"Get a good look at it," The captain said proudly, switch the sword from one hand to another. He didn't even wonder who 'Vista and Haruta' were; instead he just assumed that they were this kid's parents. The captain raised the sword straight over his head, intent on beheading the child as his crewmates screamed in approval. "For it'll be the last thing you see."

"Luffy!"

"Ace!" And just like that the child was gone. The pirate captain and his crew blinked in confusion. Where the hell did he go? The turned around just in time to see the child being picked up by a older man—he had no shirt on, just an orange hat and some shorts along with combat boots and a knife.

The man—Ace was it? —Glared at all of them, sending chills down their spine. "And what," He said in a dangerously low voice. "Do we have here?"

"The fat person is my friend," Luffy cried out happily, throwing his arms around the older's neck. Ace's glare never once wavered. "He's really cool. He even showed me his sword!"

"Hmm," Ace hummed, shifting the boy so he was handing off his back. "I'm pretty sure they were trying to kill you."

"Eh? But the were nice to me." Luffy cocked his head to the side as if he was truly confused. The captain had the sudden urge to slam his head against a brick wall. Really? Honestly? The child was that dense? Wouldn't a normal five-year-old be running to their mother crying by now? That's how the captain always assumed kids to be like, snotty brats that completely depend on their mothers.

"I don't think beheading you is considered nice." Ace responded with a thoughtless shrug. "Besides, they look pretty stupid. Maybe they're lost? You'd think pirates would clear out of town as soon as they hear Oyaji's name."

"Oi!" The captain suddenly yelled out, tried of being annoyed and even more tired of being insulted. "Put the kid down and hand him over or you'll die with him!"

Some dangerous flashed in Ace's eyes, something feral. He spun around to face the captain with a full-blown glare printed all over his face. The captain had always thought that freckles were suppose to make a person look childish, but nothing about this man screamed childish at the moment. "Over. My. Dead. Body."

Ignore his mind screaming at him, the pirate raised his sword out in front of him. It was suppose to be threatening, but the man in front of him didn't even flinch. "Is that so? Bring it!"

Ace simply responded by placing the child down by his feet and instructing him not to move before his shoulder's erupted into white-hot flames.

Well fuck. This man was a devil fruit user, huh?

Behind him, several of his crewmates gasped and stumped back. One of them called out, "Captain! Don't fight him! Don't you realize who that is?" While another one cried, "It's him! Hiken no Ace! Whitebeard's second division commander!"

Whitebeard's . . .

Second division . . .

Commander?!

The sword clattered out of the captain's hands and he broke out into cold sweat. There was no way. No way to fight one of _his _commanders. The strongest man in the world has some of the most monstrous people that follow him and one was standing right in front of him.

Without another word, the pirate captain spun on his heels and _ran _faster than he'd ever run before. He didn't even glance back when the child shouted, "Bye fatty!"

There was no way in hell he was ever coming back.

* * *

It had been a surprisingly hot year for the crew. It hadn't snowed once since they'd basically adopted Luffy into the family. There hadn't been a winter island since . . . well, a long time.

That was, until today.

With a happy smile, Ace nudged the sleeping bundle next to him. Said bundle only groaned and pulled the blanket tighter over his body, trying to conserve heat. He was shivering slightly, but other than that he looked fine. "Cold."

Ace had to muffle his laugh. "Yeah, I know, buddy. But I have a surprise for you so you have to get up, okay?"

A small tuff of raven black hair puffed its way out followed by two big eyes. "A surprise? Extra breakfast!"

Ace stood up and ruffled the child's soft hair. "No extra breakfast, but it's just as good. I promise." The fire user only had a short-sleeved shirt on even if his nakama were basically in bundles of cloth. It had turned out to be colder than they'd expected and most of the time Whitebeard's crew didn't handle cold weather very well.

Luffy pulled the blanket off of him so that it just hung around his shoulders. He was still shaking and had both of his arms wrapped around himself. "What surprise?" He asked, curiosity brimming his eyes.

Ace walked over to the place that they kept Luffy's clothes and pulled out a long sleeve shirt, some warm pants and other warm accessories. He then walked back over to the bed and placed them down in front of Luffy, gesturing for him to get dressed.

Ten minutes later, Ace was helping Luffy get his snow boots on and then leading him to the gallery to get breakfast.

"Thatch!" Luffy rammed himself into the cook the moment he saw him, clinging to his legs. He looked up at the commander with those big doe eyes that seemed to be way too adorable for a five year old. "Meat!"

Thatch laughed and picked the boy up so that he was clinging to his back now. "Did you see outside yet, Luffy?"

Luffy blinked and tilted his head to the side. "What outside?"

Thatch threw Ace a dirty look while Ace just rubbed the back of his head and let out a small laugh. "I thought I'd make it a surprise."

"Ace promised my extra meat." Luffy informed Thatch in the most serious voice that he knew how to do.

"Oi!" Ace glared at the five-year-old while he was stuffing his own plate with food. "I didn't. You made that up."

Luffy shook his head. "Nu-uh. Ace promised."

"I promised nothing you dirty little liar."

"Can you two not get in a fight over meat?" Thatch said with a sigh. "Honestly, it's like you two have the same mindset."

Ace raised an eyebrow, offended. "Did you just compare my mind to the mind of someone who still has trouble speaking?"

"Ace is stupid," Luffy offered up his own opinion. "He can't tie his soolace."

"It's shoelace," Ace corrected before he comprehended when Luffy said before. "Oi! I'm not stupid, brat!" They walked over to the table and Ace sat across from Thatch and Luffy who was now happily munching on his breakfast bacon.

"I don't know," Thatch ventured, a sly grin on his face. "You have your moments, Ace."

"I don—I can't argue with that."

Thatch reached over the table and clasped the younger man on the back. "You're right, you can't!"

"Did Ace say he was stupid?" Luffy asked curiously, smiling at both of his parent-like figures.

Before anyone could say anything else to add more heat to the already raging fire, Haruta slid her way right next to Ace and threw a careless arm around his shoulders. "What's up? Ace you look like you're about to burn down a building." She poked his cheek and laughed.

Ace sent a glare towards Thatch and Luffy. "Not a building. Just an annoying five year old and a cook."

Luffy squealed and immediately dove under the table, shouting, "Meanie Ace!"

"You try it and I'll do the exact same thing to you that Luffy did to me." Thatch said, pointing a piece of bacon in Ace's direction as if that was supposed to be threatening.

Hartua raised an amused eyebrow, a smirk playing on her face. "You mean the time when he pained you pink and stole your hair gel?"

Giggles from under the table indicated that the convict in question was still listening to everything they were saying.

Scowling, Thatch slammed his hand on the table (Probably to shut up the thing underneath). "That was _so _not funny."

Seeing where this was going, Ace grinned. "I dunno, Thatch. It was pretty funny to watch you run around the ship with bright pink glitter all over you and your hair down." Ace paused, and looked thoughtful for a moment. "Actually, it was more of a nightmare but whatever."

Marco slid in the seat next to Thatch and looked down at the plate in front of him. "Where's the brat?"

Ace flicked his head towards the table. "He's _hiding." _

Seeing this as the usual routine, Marco just shrugged and started picking off the uneaten parts of Luffy's plate. "I guess this food is min—"

"SHIT!"

Everyone looked at Ace. "Let you brat! This hurts! Why is it always me?" When he noticed the looks, Ace clarified, "He's biting me again! And it's Marco's fault!"

"Why is it my fault?" Marco said through his –Luffy's—food.

"You're the one who stared eating his food," Ace wheezed out. "Please get him off on my leg."

Haruta rolled her blue eyes and leaned under the table to scoop up Luffy. The said boy looked at Haruta with a straight face and said in a childish voice, "I didn' do it."

"Uh-huh," Haruta said in a disbelieving tone, but she was smiling. In fact, the only one who wasn't smiling was Ace, who was rubbing his leg, muttering, "Why did that even hurt? I have pants on!"

She set the boy on the table, having his legs hang off the side. He was whistling, looking anywhere but at Haruta and Ace. Haruta ruffled his hair and held her hand up. "I was going to say good job, kid. I'm not scolding you. Hive-five, okay?"

With a large grin, Luffy hi-fived Haruta's hand. "Okay!"

"You want to go see the snow, Luffy?" Marco suggested, taking the boy off the table and into his arms. The Phoenix assumed that the boy had seen snow before, but since they hadn't had snow on the deck for a while and the fact that the boy lived on a summer island was enough to suspect the worst.

Luffy tilted his head to the side. "What snow?"

"What's snow?" Ace scoffed, standing up and taking both him and Luffy's plate to the trash. "The snow is suppose to be your surprise and you don't _even know what it is?_"

Luffy squeaked and buried his head in Marco's shoulder. "Sorry." He muttered.

"Ace, cool it," Marco said before turning and walking out of the gallery with Ace and Haruta close on his heels. Thatch had to go help the cooks after the meal so he didn't join them until later.

Luffy stared at the white wonderland around him. Several of the Whitebeard pirates were involved in what looked like a giant snowball fight that seemed to take over the deck. They were all laughing, and looked like they were really enjoying themselves. It had been a while since they'd had peace like this.

"That snow?" Luffy asked and unraveled one of his hands from Marco's neck to catch a falling snowflake. "Pretty!" He exclaimed and then he sneezed, sending the snowflake he had just caught back into the air.

Marco set the boy down in front of him while a lazy smile. Immediately, Luffy was off, practically diving into the snow laughing all the while.

"He's really grown on us, hasn't he?" Haruta asked, smiling as she too watched the boy play.

"I can't believe it's been a year," Ace sighed. "Time just seems to fly out the window."

"Yeah," Haruta laughed and poked Ace's stomach. "You're growing into an old man."

The two got into another argument, but Marco tuned them out. Had it really been a year? It didn't feel like it. It seemed like just yesterday they were on that island, facing down the giant tiger trying to save a boy they didn't know.

Marco was immensely glad that they did though. It was hard to imagine life before Luffy's constant noise and cheerfulness.

The smile on his face grew a little bit. Yes, there was no doubt that Luffy was their family.

* * *

"Ace should wear this one," Luffy said, holding up a black cape and some fake fangs. "Vampire."

Ace bent down and picked the boy up. "You want me to be a vampire, huh?" Luffy giggled in response making Ace smile even wider. "What are you going to be then? I thought you wanted to be a vampire."

Luffy seemed to think about this for a second before he laughed and threw his arms around Ace's neck. "Imma be a pirate!"

Ace couldn't help it; he laughed. "You can't be a pirate when you already are one, Luffy." The boy pouted and untangled himself from Ace's neck. "Don't give me that look, you're suppose to dress up as something different from what you really are. How about a mummy?"

The boy shook his head. "Too old." He pursed his lips in an adorable way that only Luffy could pull off. "And dead."

"Pumpkin?"

"Too girly."

"Lion?"

"I'm not a baby."

"Zombie?"

Luffy stuck his tongue out. "They smell bad."

"You've never even met one before," Ace sighed. "What about a . . .cat?"

"No."

"You're impossible, you know that, right?" Ace said as he carried Luffy and the vampire costume over to the counter where a very pretty cashier waited patiently for them. Ace had to give her some respect—she knew that he was a commander but she didn't look scared at all. She had simply told him that any paying customer was welcome with open arms and that if he didn't pay; she was going to kick his ass.

Ace had simply laughed and told her that he'd be paying if he found something.

"Find everything alright?" The cashier asked with a smile as Ace set Luffy down on the counter and handed her the vampire costume that Luffy had picked out for her.

"Kind of," He flashed her a smile and nudged Luffy. "Luffy here wants to be something that he already is and refuses to be anything else."

"Pirate?" The woman guessed as she rag up the costume. Ace nodded with an eye roll making the woman laugh. "Hmm. I might have some other costumes in the back. He'd look cute in a dinosaur costume."

Luffy puffed put his cheeks in denial. "I'm not cute."

The woman ruffled his hair. "Okay. Okay. No dinosaur costume. How about a knight?"

Luffy tilted his head to the side. "What's a knight?"

"Knights are brave and noble. They'd go around protecting others by slaying dragons with really cool armor on," The woman tried to explain to the boy who's attention span was worse than a fly's.

"But I don't want to be brave and noble." Luffy said, pouting. "I want to be fierce! Like Oyaji."

Ace sighed, knowing that this argument would take al night. "Luffy, knights have really cool swords."

Luffy's eyes immediately turned into stars. "Swords? Really? Nah, Ace! I wanna be a knight. Then I can have a cool sword like Vista, right?" The boy mimicked a swinging action.

"Different kind of sword, but the same idea." Ace said, running his hand through the boy's hair. He smiled once more at the woman. "Could I get the knight costume too? If its not too much trouble, I mean."

"No, no. It's perfectly fine." The woman said before disappearing behind the counter to fetch the costume.

Ace looked at Luffy who was practically vibrating in his seat and said in an amused voice, "You happy now? This is your first Halloween after all."

"Yeah!" Luffy cheered, throwing his hands up in the air. "Ace is best. Shishishshi!"

"Here you go," The woman reappeared and placed the Styrofoam costume on the counter table. "Is that all, sir?"

"Yeah," Ace nodded and threw her a large bag of gold coins before she cold tell him the price, which would've been a considerably smaller amount. He picked up Luffy and the two costumes and started walking out the door. "Keep the change!"

The woman was too flustered to reply.

Almost two hours later it was dark outside except for the lights that loosely hung around the houses to give it a 'creepy' glow. Luffy was running all over the place, demanding candy, with Ace and Thatch following closely behind. Marco was going to come, but Ace refused to let him leave the room unless he had on his pineapple costume on.

Marco wasn't very happy.

But at least Thatch had dressed up with him. Besides, his costume wasn't that embarrassing compared to some other peoples, mainly Thatch. He wore a bright poke-dotted clown suit and a matching wig (That was Vista's idea because Thatch had refused to mess with his hair at first).

"Nah, Ace!" Luffy ran up to him and tugged on his cape. "How come the other kids have so much more candy than me? It's unfair!"

"You have to go to more houses," Ace suggested. "And be really cute while saying 'trick-or-treat!'" Not that the boy needed any help with the cute part. Luffy was just naturally adorable.

"Or go steal the other kid's candy." Thatch offered his own input to his pupil. "Then take off running if they start to chase you."

"Really?!" The boy bounced around Thatch's leg, clearly happy. "And they won't be mad?"

"Kid, they'll all be utterly pissed. That's why you have to run fast. Think of it as training, all right? If you can outrun an angry mob of midgets, I'll go buy you a very large bag of candy, 'kay?"

"'Kay!"

Yes, Thatch did end up buying Luffy a _very _large bag of candy that night.

But really, who expected anything else?

* * *

**Haha done xD Don't expect any new updates for a while. On any of my stories. I'm grounded from my computer and I've had to use my mom's. **

**In other news, I really need a new summary, any ideas? **

**And I'll be re-done the first chapter a bit. Yay~**

**Review would be wonderful! I always love waking up so some amazing comments! **


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